Spotting the Northern Lights in Orkney

Head to the remote Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland to search for the Northern Lights and discover some unique locales while you're at it, says Daisy Carrington

Everyone in Kirkwall seems to have a Northern Lights story. Pat Stone, my ebullient guide, recalls how they once nearly blinded her while driving. I tell her I’m hoping to see them this very night – in fact, a chance of glimpsing the Northern Lights is the sole reason I’ve flown out to the Orkneys, a group of 70 islands off the north-east coast of Scotland.

Some islands reach as far north as Norway and I’m told the clear skies above make a perfect stage for viewing what Orkadians call the ‘merry dancers’. Of course, Pat warns, there’s no guarantee I’ll see them.

“Sometimes I get these Americans who write to say, ‘exactly what time will the Northern Lights start?’ I have to tell them it doesn’t quite work that way,” she says.